Combined propelling means and brake for railroad cars



June 19, 1962 1.. RICHARDSON 3,039,402

COMBINED PROFELLING MEANS AND BRAKE FOR RAILROAD CARS Filed June 15, 1960 2 hee'l1SSh6et 1 INV EN TOR.

June 19, 1962 RICHARDSON 3,039,402

COMBINED PROFELLING MEANS AND BRAKE FOR RAILROAD CARS Filed June 15, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I I? 13 0' f/// PW INVENTOR. Lawrence Fiche/dial! United States Patent 3,039,402 COMBINED PROPELLING MEANS AND BRAKE 7 FOR RAILROAD EARS Lawrence Richardson, 19 Ware St, t'lambridge, Mass. Filed June 15, 1960,5er. No. 36,443 10 Claims. (Cl. 104168) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in railroad equipment, and in particular the invention concerns itself with the art of propelling and braking railroad cars during shunting operations.

The conventional practice in freight yards is to utilize what is known as a hump, over which cars are pushed by a locomotive and are permitted to descend by gravity for switching into various sidings. In order for this procedure to be effective, a hump of a considerable elevation is necessary, and apart from the fact that substantial locomotive power is required to push the cars over the hump, the subsequent distribution of the gravitating cars into their various sidings involves a very careful braking action on the part of attending personnel in order that the cars may be brought to a stop at their appropriate locations. Moreover, once the gravitational effect of the hump on a particular car is exhausted, no means apart from locomotive power are ordinarily available for moving the car further, if such should be necessary.

The present invention eliminates these various difliculties by the provision of a combined propelling device and brake which may be effectively utilized in shunting railroad cars without the use of any hump at all, or with the use of a relatively low hump, if so desired.

As such, an important feature of the invention resides in the provision of a power-driven wheel which is adapted to frictionally engage a side of a railroad car so as to propel the same along its track, or alternatively, to bring a rolling car to a stop, as required during shunting operations.

Means are provided for supporting the aforementioned wheel for movement into and out of operative engagement with the side of the car, and while in one embodiment of the invention such supporting means are fixedly mounted at one side of the track, in a modified embodiment the supporting means'and the wheel carried thereby may be moved longitudinally of the track for operative engagement with any one of 'a plurality of cars.

Some of the-advantages of the invention reside in its simplicity of construction, efiicient operation, and in its adaptability to economical manufacture.

With the foregoing objects and features in view and such other objects and features as may become apparent as this specification proceeds, the invention will be understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters of reference are used to designate like parts, and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the invention in operative engagement with the side of a box cm;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary view, partly in elevation and partly in vertical section, taken substantially in the plane of the line 2-2 in FIGURE 1 and on an enlarged scale;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary elevational View of a slightly modified form of the invention;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary sectional view, taken substantially in the plane of the line 4-4 in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is an elevational view of another modified embodiment; and

FIGURE 6 is a schematic diagram showing an arrangement of tracks in a shunting yard with cars thereon, in relation to the invention.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, more particularly to FIGURES l and 2., the combined propelling means and brake for use in railroad car shuntice ing operations is designated generally by the numeral 10 and is adapted to be fixedly mounted at one side of a railroad track or siding III for operative engagement with one side 12 of a railroad car such as a box car 13.

The apparatus 10 embodies in its construction an upright supporting standard 14 provided at its lower end with a base plate 15 which is rigidly secured by fasteners 16 to a concrete base 17 embedded in the ground, as will be clearly apparent. The upper end portion of the stand ard 14 is provided with an annular shoulder 18. An elongated carrier 19 is provided at one end thereof with a tubular bearing 20 which is rotatably mounted on the standard 14 atop the shoulder 18, whereby the carrier is swingable in a horizontal plane toward and away from the side of the box car 13.

The other or outer end portion of the carrier 19 supports a suitable motor, such as the electric motor 21 which is of the reversible type and is equipped with a reduction gear box 22 driving a vertical shaft 23. The latter has a hub 24 thereon to which is removably secured by suitable bolts 25 a wheel member 26 provided with a pneumatic tire 27. The motor 21 receives its supply of current through a conductor 28 connected through a suitable reversing switch, not shown, to a current source.

When the apparatus is to be used for braking the car 13 which is rolling freely along the track 11 in the direction of the arrow 29, the carrier 19 is positioned as shown by the full lines in FIGURE 1 so that it is oriented obliquely against the direction of travel of the car. The motor 21 is energized so as to rotate the wheel and tire 2d, 27 in the direction of the arrow 30 and when the tire 27 comes in engagement with the side 12 of the car, the rotation of the wheel will produce a tendency to propel the car in a direction opposite to that of the arrow 29 in which the car is rolling, thus producing a braking action whereby the car will be brought to a stop. While some slippage may occur between the tire 27 and the side wall 12 of the car, the orientation of the carrier 19 relative to the direction of movement of the car is such as to urge the tire into frictional contact with the car and reduce such slippage to the minimum.

When the car 13 is standing still on the track 11 and it is desired to move it in the direction of the arrow 29, the motor 21 is energized so as to rotate the wheel 26 in the direction of the arrow 31, with the result that the rotation of the wheel and tire will impart the desired'rolling movement to the car.

In the event that the car is to be braked while rolling or propelled in the direction of the arrow 32, the carrier 19 is swung on the standard 14 so that it is oriented against such a direction as indicated by the dotted lines 32', and the wheel 26 is rotated by the motor 21 in the appropriate direction to produce the same operational results as already explained in connection with the direction of car travel indicated by the arrow 29.

FIGURES 3 and 4 illustrate a slightly modified arrangement of the invention wherein means are provided for limiting the extent of swinging movement of the carrier 1? on the standard 14, such means comprising a sector plate 35 which is secured to the shoulder 18 of the standard and is formed with apertures 36 to selectively receive stop pins 37. The pins 37 project above the plate 35 so that they may be engaged by the carrier 19 as indicated by the dotted lines 38 to limit the movement of the carrier relative to the standard. Either one or both of the pins 37 may be used, as desired.

In the further modified embodiment of the invention shown in FIGURES 5 and 6 the standard 14, in place of being fixed to the ground, is mounted by its base plate 15 to or on a carriage 40, having wheels 41 for movement along a track 42 which parallels the track 11 as is shown in FIGURE 6. Thus, the carriage 40 may be moved,

either manually or under power, along the track 42 so that the device mounted on the carriage may be brought into operative engagement, either for propelling or for braking purposes, with any one of a number of cars 13 on the track 11, as will be clearly apparent. A plurality of sidings 43 branch from the track 11 as shown and by the use of the apparatus 10, 40, the cars 13 may be propelled selectively onto the various sidings as indicated at 44, without the-use of the conventional hump. The wheels 41 of the carriage are equipped with suitable brakes 45 so that the carriage may be locked against movement along the track 42 while the propelling or braking action of the device 10 takes place.

While in the foregoing there have been described and shown the preferred embodiments of the invention, various modifications may become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention relates. Accordingly, it is not desired to limit the invention to this disclosure and various modifications may be resorted to, such as may lie within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A combined propelling device and brake for use in shunting railroad cars, comprising an upright support, a carrier pivotally mounted on said support for free movement in a horizontal plane, a rotatable car engaging member provided on said carrier and adapted to frictionally engage a side of a railroad car, and power means for rotating said car engaging member, said carrier being disposed obliquely to the side of the car when the car engaging member is in operation.

2. A combined propelling device and brake for use in shunting railroad cars, comprising an upright support adapted to be disposed adjacent one side of a railroad car, a carrier pivotally mounted on said support for free movement toward and away from the side of the stated car, a rotatable wheel mounted on said carrier for rotation in a horizontal plane and adapted to frictionally engage the side of the stated car, and power means for rotating said wheel selectively in opposite directions, said carrier being disposed obliquely to the side of the car when the car engaging member is in operation.

3. The device as defined in claim 2 wherein said means comprise a motor mounted on said carrier and operatively connected to said wheel.

4. The combination of a railroad car movable along a track, and a combined propelling device and brake for use in shunting said car, said combined propelling device and brake comprising a support disposed at one side of said track, a carrier pivotally mounted on said support for free movement in a horizontal plane toward and away from a side of said car, a wheel mounted for rotation in a horizontal plane on said support and frictionally engageable with the side of said car, and power means for rotating said Wheel, said carrier being elongated and having one end thereof pivotally mounted on said support, said wheel being mounted at the other end of said carrier, and said carrier being disposed obliquely to the side of said car when said wheel is in operation.

5. The combination as defined in claim 4 wherein said support is fixed to the ground at one side of said track.

6. The combination as defined in claim 4 together with a carriage movable along a track parallel to the first mentioned track, said support being mounted on said carriage, and means for locking said carriage against movement along its track.

7. The combination as defined in claim 4 together with stop means for limiting the horizontal movement of said carrier on said support.

8. A combined propelling device and brake for use in shunting railroad cars, comprising an upright supporting standard adapted to be disposed adjacent one side of a rai1- road car, an elongated carrier pivotally mounted at one end thereof on said standard for movement in a horizontal plane toward and away from the side of the stated car, a vertical shaft rotatably mounted at the other end of said carrier, a wheel member secured to said shaft for rotation therewith, a pneumatic tire provided on said wheel member and adapted to frictionally engage the side of the stated car, and a motor supported by said carrier and operativeiy connected to said shaft for rotating the same, said elongated carrier being disposed obliquely to the side of the car when the car engaging member is in operation.

9. The device as defined in claim 8 together with stop means supported by said standard and engageable by said carrier for limiting the horizontal movement of the latter.

10. In combination with 'a railway track having a car thereon, a combined car propelling device and brake comprising an upright support mounted adjacent the track, a carrier member pivotally mounted on said support for free movement in a horizontal plane, and a rotatable member pivoted on said carrier and adapted to frictionally engage one side of the car, and reversible power means for rotating said car engaging member in either direction, the distance between the pivot point of said carrier and the point of contact between said car engaging member and the car being greater than the shortest distance between the pivot point and the side of the car.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,633,204 Bartlett June 21, 1927 2,044,134 Storer June 16, 1936 2,575,914 Griffin et a1 Nov. 20, 1951 2,947,263 Vidmar Aug. 2, 1960 2,954,744 Bonner Oct. 4, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 585,339 Germany Oct. 2, 1933 

